Summer Time!

So I have been doing stuff at home and cooking on an actual stove. So Hopefully you will be interested still in my adventures. I have a broken camera. Lame so I will be using my cellphone to take pictures. YAY

Long time no Post update~

I understand I haven't been posting recently but it has been mainly due to experimenting and while some of my dishes are no longer cooked via hot pot/microwave there are some I am finding for conventional means.

Also one of my hot pots died. I am currently waiting on getting it fixed but it is not a pretty picture when heating water automatically equals a light show!

Upcoming Recipes (in no particular order):

• Roast Beef Stew (Hot Pot)
• Hommade Ramen/Noodles (Stove Top)
• Stuffed Chicken with Parma Ham (Oven) 

Along with whatever else I manage to find in between then. Till Next Time!

~Ali

At Home Cooking: Chili Cheese Dip

When I am at home I have more access for appliances than I would at my dorm. Today my family had me make their favorite: Chili Cheese Dip. It is great for appetizer or for sports games or for a pot luck.

Also I want to thank my readers out there especially Dylan and Rachelle!!!!!!!! Thanks so much you two!

Materials:

• Pie Pan
• Oven
• Spoon

Ingrediants:

• 1 can of Chili
• 1 package of Cream Cheese
• Shredded Cheese

Ingredients

 First preheat the oven to 350. 

YAY OVEN!!!!

 Second, open the package of cream cheese and spread it at the bottom of the pie pan.

Block of Cream Cheese

Smush it with the spoon!

Make it nice and smooth

 Next empty the can of chili and spread that over the cream cheese

2nd layer down one more to go

Top it with some shredded cheese

Looking better

Next put it in the oven, cook it until the cheese is melted and bubbling. Then let it cool and serve with chips. I didnt get a good picture of it with chips since my family ate it all!!! So here it is once it was cooling. 

TA DAAAAAA

Conclusion out of 5: 5- Excellent

Cost: 5, It is very easy and very cheap. Borders on 8 dollars for ingredients if I get name brands, store brands are even cheaper. 

Experience Cooking: 5, its almost routine, very easy. You can finish the combing the ingredients by the time the oven has fully preheated. Very Easy.

Time: 5, Very fast, all you have to do is warm it up until the cheese melts and bubbles. It takes about 15 minutes if that. 

Appearance: 4, Its not the prettiest thing in the world then again what were you expecting?

Taste: 5,creamy and heavy at the same time. The chips give it texture. Very tasty. Like I said my family loves this dish and it is my most requested dish when I go home.

Creamy Chedder Red Mashed Potatoes

Yea I couldn't figure out another name for the dish but let me tell you it was nothing less of awesome. But it did take me two tries to master soooo here it is!

Materials 

• Cheese Grater (if you are not using Shredded Cheese) 
• Cutting-board/Plate
• Mixing Bowl
• Hot Pot
• Spatula
• Knife
•  Fork

Ingredients  

• 4 or 5 Red Potatoes
• Scallions
• 3 tablespoons of Butter
• 2/3 cup of Milk
• 3 cloves of garlic 
• 1 teaspoon of Salt
• 1/2 teaspoon of Pepper 
• 1 cup of Chedder Cheese

From the Original 1st attempt but still shows all the ingredients you need.

First wash the potatoes and cut them into small pieces and put them into the hot pot with water and let them boil. Add 1 clove of the garlic (Peeled) to also cook. While the potatoes are boiling you can shred your 1 cup of Chedder cheese and Mince the other 2 cloves of garlic.

Potatoes beginning to boil without garlic

Potatoes with the garlic

Minced Garlic in a spare bowl

After they are soft and boiled thoroughly drain them well and put them in the big bowl. Take a fork and mash them. Make sure you also mash the garlic clove. Wash out your Hot Pot and let it cool down while you mash it.

Drained Potatoes ready for Mashing!!

Mashed Potatoes

 In the hot pot melt the butter and then add the garlic to heat up. Do not let the garlic brown. So about a minute then.

Garlic beginning to cook with the butter

After that slowly star to stir in your milk

Milk stirred in makes a very light yellow sauce of some sort

Next add the salt and pepper

After that slowly add the cheese into the mixture and then let it melt. After it has melted slowly add the sauce into the mashed potatoes.

Slowly stir in the mixture so it gets a great creamy consistency

After that it is ready to serve. I ended up having to reheat the potatoes but they tasted awesome! I also garnished them with scallions. They tasted pretty dang good!

Final Product!!

Conclusion out of 5: 4- Above Average.

Cost: 4, It was pretty cheap but it depends where you get your ingredients from. Also many of the ingredients can be used in other dishes.

Experience Cooking: 3, It was pretty difficult. The first time I messed up and it was too watery/creamy/runny. It was a stupid mistake but still impacted the dish negatively. It took me the second try to finally succeed and during that time it actually did really well. I gave it a 3 because it is a dish that takes some watching and monitoring. Also you have to make sure you take the time of adding things SLOWLY. And Mashing the potatoes with nothing but a fork is pretty hard but it is worth it. It does make a decent amount of Potatoes, I still have like 1 serving of leftovers even after my friend and I had two helpings with some Roast Beef Sandwiches that she had made.

Time: 3- Average time for preparing the dish is like you were at home. It takes about an hour or more,  so it isn't a good recipe to prepare unless you have the amount of time it needs. If you are short on time and want these, then best prepare them in advance. It is worth it if you have friends over and are just cooking for a study party ect or for a weekend. 

Appearance: 5,  Pretty nice, very creamy. It has a yellowish appearance with the red skin of the potatoes. The green scallion garnish added another pretty color.

Taste: 4, Really awesome! My friend and I both enjoyed them. The garlic is nice and mellowed out by the other ingredients. It wasn't too creamy like my last bunch and pretty flavorful. The scallions also helped giving it a strong flavor. Though you can opt out of those.

Fresh Raspberry Yogurt with Chocolate

So ever just want to actually prep something nice and easy and make it look pretty or at least try to? well i have so I decided to try this project out.

Materials

• Bowl
• Fork
• Grater of some kind
• Spoon

Ingredients

• Fresh Raspberries
• 2 cups of Vanilla Yogurt
• 1 Chocolate Bar

Ingredients and an upside down candy bar 

 First grab a couple of raspberries and mash them with a fork

Mashing the raspberries

Mashed Raspberries looks like Jam

 Add the vanilla yogurt and mix it up so that it looks good. also try to make sure the mash isn't all at the bottom you want some of that good stuff at the top too

Adding the Vanilla Yogurt

Mix it all up!

 While the yogurt is chilling on the side, break off a piece of the chocolate and shave some of it with a grater into a bowl.

Garnish Time!

Chocolate Shavings!

 At the end of all this add some raspberries to the top either arranged or just thrown in there and sprinkle with the chocolate and ta-da you got a delicious dessert or breakfast item!

End Product looks amazing right?

Conclusion Out of 5: 5- Amazing!

Cost:  5: VERY CHEAP! It was just simple ingredients really. Its very very inexpensive to make.

Experience Cooking: 4, Easy and somewhat fun. Then again I'm sorta tired tonight so maybe it would be more fun if I was fully awake.


Time: 5, Simple and easy.

Apperance: 4, Not what I expected but it looks tasty and it was!

Taste: 5, Very good the taste of the raspberries were very bold giving it a great flavor. Its kinda energizing and makes me think this would be a great quick and easy breakfast.

Eggs and Scallions in a Hot Pot

So I decided to do an experiment on eggs. I want to see which cooks eggs better. A Hot Pot? Or a microwave. Today we will be doing Scrambled Eggs in a hot pot. Im adding Scallions cause I like the flavor and texture. And I will be using these eggs to go with some microwaved instant rice. (I recently bought actual rice but i've saving it for another project)

Materials

• Plate or Cutting Board
• Bowl
• Fork
• Hot Pot

Ingredients

• 2 Eggs
• Milk 
• Scallions
• 1 tablespoon Butter

1- Scramble the eggs in a bowl add a little bit of milk so about a tablespoon or so.

Before Scrambling

For me since I am doing scallions, I chop the scallions on the plate. After I am done I put them in the egg mixture.  And then add the butter to my hot pot. I turn it on and wait for it to melt. Then add the eggs. And cook like regular scrambled eggs.

Scallions

Scallions Chopped

Added to eggs

Butter melting

Now when I was cooking it I noticed that of course when the egg was in the plastic it was not getting cooked as fast. Now I realized this in the beginning. But little did I know how much contsant stirring I would be doing because i needed to make sure they didn't burn. All in all a little hetic but worth it.

While cooking

Result

Conclusion Out of 5: 3- average

Cost:  4: It all costed pretty cheap and most of these materials you buy in bulk so you have more than enough to cook other dishes with them.

Experience Cooking: 2, It needed alot of monitoring to make sure the butter or eggs didn't burn from sitting on the hot part for too long. And it took a bit to make sure they were completely cooked through.

Time: 3, Prep is a little busy but it was a pretty fast cooking experience. It didn't take longer than cooking a normal egg.

Apperance: 3, Very chopped up from the amount of stirring. Sorta Fluffy not really.

Taste: 5, Very good. Makes it worth going through all the trouble and almost taste as if I had made them in a pan at home.

Cooking Safety (aka Common Sense)

I guess I'll be making a series of non cooking posts while I am away from my dorm and before I can take pictures. So in my college according to the handbook we are allowed to cook things with microwave and a hot pot along with various other applicances that don't have open coils or deep fry things. Of course this hasn't stopped my friends from saying they would hunt me down if a fire alarm ever went off. In most dorms they do have communal kitchens where you are probably more versed in safety. But when it comes to dorm cooking you have to be cautious of new dangers and new risks. Whether it be handling a knife and raw food, or making sure the room doesn't get too warm and set off the sprinklers with the steam. (yes this has happened)

Here are some things I have employed to prevent fire hazards:

1. Always cook on a clean surface away from random paper or other material that could catch fire. If anything I usually cook with a towel underneath the hotpot to prevent it from moving on the sleek surface near my window.
2. Cook near the window or away from the fire alarm. In my old dorm at NCSU some of the sprinklers would be set off by something as simple as the showers steaming up too much. So often times I would crack a door or a window to allow ventilation in the room. In my new dorm there is a nice wide ledge near the window that I use to cook on. It is opposite of the fire alarm and allows me to crack the window for the ventilation I need.
3. NEVER LEAVE COOKING UNATTENDED- Self explanatory and a sorta duh moment, but its actually one of the number one things college students tend to overlook. And with Dorm cooking being the cause of 70% fire alerts in college. We want to be extra safe by not taking that chance. 
4. Unplug cooking appliances after use, some of them like my lovely hot pot wont turn off if you just put it on low. So best thing to do is to just unplug it after you are done cooking. Also follow all the instructions.
5. As much as we don't want to admit or think that things could possibly go wrong, we still have to be prepared. Have some water on hand and even baking soda to help combat dorm fires. 

So this brings me to my second category,  Food cleanlieness. This is a little more simplier alot more common sense.

1. Always clean up your area and dishes as soon as you can. Wash in warm water and soap
2. Don't eat anything that might seem spoiled. 
3. Wash your hands before and after prepping food and after you handle raw meat to avoid cross contamination. This means utensils and cutting boards, etc. before switching foods (meat to veggies or vv)
4. And from a wise friend of mine:  "Try not to cook in bare feet - hot spills or dropped pans/heavy objects can hurt like a mofo":)

So this concludes what i have to say about Dorm Cooking Safety. I may have forgotten some elements but if I have just remind me or comment below.

~Thanks!